She was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938, but her early managers figured Jamesetta would have more allure as Etta James. Though she was anointed the “Matriarch of the Blues”, her honest, expressive vocal style lent itself to various genres, such as rhythm & blues, pop and jazz, and earned her multiple Grammy awards. She opened for the Rolling Stones on several occasions, and was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.

But Ms James didn’t much care for labels. In “Rage to Survive: the Etta James Story”, an autobiography written with David Ritz, she explained that she resented being classified as a blues singer:

Sure, I can sing the blues all night long. I love the blues. I honor the form. But another part of me knows I can sing country and western just as soulfully. Not to mention hard rock. I hate restrictions. The survivor part of me, though, said take the money. And I did.

Plenty of ink has already been spilt over Ms James’s various ups and downs, professionally and personally, her battles with drug addiction, her fearlessness and unfettered persona. In a 1978 interview with NME she even aligned herself with that era’s punks and rock musicians:

“I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I’d spit in a minute. And I notice Mick [Jagger] does that same facial expression that I see, so then I sit in the dressing room and I think it’s really weird how these guys have gotten over.”

That fiery spirit reared its head in early 2009, when Ms James derided Beyoncé for her rendition of “At Last” at Barack Obama’s inauguration ball (despite applauding her version of the song on the “Dream Girls” film soundtrack). “I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song—she’s going to get her ass whupped.”

For a 70-year-old woman to still have some heckling in her indicates a rather clear rage to survive, one that accompanied her until her last days at the Riverside Community Hospital in California, where she died on January 20th, aged 73. (In tribute, Beyoncé referred to Ms James on her own official website as “one of the greatest vocalists of our time. I am so fortunate to have met such a queen.”) The Reverend Al Sharpton is expected to preside over Ms James’s funeral this weekend. Others still will dance to her music, nice and slow if they are lucky.

This story originally appeared at THE ECONOMIST.

photo by blogowitz

The five classically trained but comic members of the Spaghetti Western Orchestra take things a step farther. They’re a tribute act that devote their humor-filled shows entirely to classic Sergio Leone films such as “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and perform them with 100-odd instruments, including trumpet, bassoon and random items such as bottles, toys, bicycle pumps and Tasmanian lottery balls. As part of a larger tour of Britain this winter, this Australian group will perform from Jan. 5 to 11 in Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre.

Wearing bowler hats, suspenders, bow ties, vests, spats and white makeup, each member of the orchestra portrays film characters such as “the Lieteller” or “the Youngfeller” and perform scores typically written for much larger groups. They add comical sound effects to Morricone’s compositions by blowing on bottles and crushing cornflakes, and playing coat hangers and nail clippers.

The group is often highly praised as an “ingenious gang of comic maestros,” but have also been criticized as a technically limited act better suited for YouTube than concert halls.

Expect plenty of ricocheting bullet sound effects, whistling and a spoken narrative to keep the stories moving.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

Photo courtesy of Southbank Centre, Spaghetti Western Orchestra

“A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII 2011,” which contains more than 800 portraits, as well as extensive annotations and footnotes, is on display through Jan. 2 at the Tate Modern in London.

“You have these 18 stories and between all of them, something is said that is maybe not so easy to articulate about the complexities of life, birth and death,” Ms. Simon said. “What does it all amount to, are we evolving, or just repeating? It is about fate. Whether fate is determined by chance, blood or circumstance.”

The exhibition includes empty portraits to represent living members of a bloodline who could not be photographed due to imprisonment, military service, dengue fever, or women who were not granted permission to be photographed. Some sent clothing to be photographed instead of themselves.

The annotations and footnotes are exhaustive and compelling. The man for whom the exhibit is named, for example, discovers that official records list him as dead, even though he is in fact alive, and his land is no longer registered in his name.

“It never amounts to some sort of conclusion. For me it’s about those areas that are less speakable in a way. It’s not about forming an equation that arrives at an answer, but lots of questions, and disorientation,” Ms. Simon said.

Ms. Simon’s work is included in major public collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Her previous “Contraband 2010″ project presented more than 1,000 images of items detained or seized from passengers and mail entering the United States from abroad. Her 2007 work, “An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar 2007,” included radioactive capsules at a nuclear waste storage facility and the art collection of the C.I.A.

“My past work was always about cataloging things but in this, I wanted to find an absolute catalog, something I could not edit,” Ms. Simon said. “That led me to blood, a representation of order, but to have that budding up against disorder of the stories, concerned with ideas and systems behind stories themselves. Several of the stories read like something out of the past that are happening now, or may happen in the future.”

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

Ms. Rose has turned her passion into a profession, as director of The Chocolate Festival, an ongoing affair that takes place in Brighton, London and Oxford around Christmas and Easter. From Dec. 9 to 11, the festival will descend on London’s Southbank Center Square (Belvedere Road), a celebration of all things chocolate.

The festival, which is mostly free, will feature more than 30 stalls selling and sampling chocolate in various forms, from hot chocolate and artisan truffles to chocolate chili. Plenty of recipes and prizes will be on hand. Visitors can also chat with British chocolatiers like William Curley, Bill McCarrick, Damian Allsop and Paul Wayne Gregory about how to become a more discerning taster, and learn about chocolate’s health benefits and other uses.

A series of free tutored tastings, talks and demonstrations will be available over all three days in the Chocolate Cookery Theater, coordinated by the chef and culinary expert Valentina Harris. Luminaries of the chocolate world, including Chantal Coady, the founder of Rococo Chocolates; the food writer and author Rachel de Thample; the chef Steve Walpole; and the “Scandilicious” author Signe Johansen. Demonstrated recipes will include chocolate jelly and desserts devoid of gluten, wheat, dairy and sugar.

During a “Masters of Chocolate” Day on Dec. 10, for £5 (about $7.75), visitors can learn professional cooking techniques and recipes, and attend tutored tastings and demonstrations from Rococo Chocolate and Sir Hans Sloane Chocolate.

“Even when I am at the festival, after days of eating chocolate, I find it hard to resist if a chocolatier offers me a taste,” Ms. Rose said.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES

Africa Unsigned is an Amsterdam-based start-up music label founded by Pim Betist that promotes African artists. Under Mr Betist’s watch, Africa Unsigned has invested €525,000 (about $725,000) in helping more than 40 artists and bands tour and release albums that represent what they deem the “new African sound,” such as Kenya’s acoustic vocal group Sauti Sol. “I like to call them the East African Boyz II Men,” Mr Betist says.

“The music industry is broken, and we have to fix it,” Mr Betist said. He is confident that can be done. Africa Unsigned relies heavily on a fan-funding platform similar to the one employed by Mr Betist’s previous effort Sellaband.com, which eventually went bankrupt but has since re-launched.

Mr Betist is not the only taste-maker focusing his efforts on Africa. After promoting successful, Grammy award-winning American hip hop and soul artists like The Roots and Erykah Badu for more than a decade, the Brooklyn-based online hip-hop community OkayPlayer now has a sister site called OkayAfrica that promotes African musicians in similar genres. Unlike Africa Unsigned, OkayAfrica is not a standard record label, but it has committed $500,000 to developing an online platform for such artists as Seun and Femi Kuti, K’naan, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, and Afrikan Boy.

“We’re looking to break the mold of ‘world music’ and highlight those on the continent really pushing the boundaries and innovating with cutting edge music,” said Ginny Suss, OkayAfrica’s site manager. “Forward-thinking stuff that fuses hip hop, electronic music, and reggae with more traditional sounds.”

Sales fluctuate. K’Naan, for example, sold 70,000 albums in 2009 but dropped to 44,000 in 2010. But his digital album sales rocketed from 233,000 in 2009 to 485,000 in 2010.

A 2010 UN report claims that demand for music and other “creative industry” products has remained stable during the global recession, and global exports of creative goods and services, e.g. music, more than doubled between 2002 and 2008. The report concluded that for developing countries, creative industries could prove to be “one of the most dynamic sectors of world commerce.” Africa is mentioned throughout the report, as is the Creative Africa initiative, a long-term strategy to help the continent benefit economically from its creative talents and cultural heritage.

Earlier this year Wired Magazine described an “entrepreneurial boom” in Africa full of “vast new tech opportunity.” Aware of this, Africa Unsigned makes their music available through mobile phones, whose availabilty and use have soared throughout Africa since the late 1990s.

Last March, at a “Marketing 21st Century Music in Africa” discussion panel at the annual South By Southwest festival (SXSW) in Texas, Ngozi Odita, who lives in New York and describes herself as a curator of comtemporary African culture, argued that music and culture is Africa’s strongest export. As evidence, she cites Kanye West, the award winning hip-hop artist and producer who earlier this year signed Nigerian musicians D’Banj and Don Jazzy to G.O.O.D music, the record label and artist management firm he founded in 2004. Artists on African record labels such as Storm 360 regularly tour Africa and overseas.

Ms Odita, originally from Nigeria, runs the media site Society HAE, a hub for contemporary African culture and music. This summer she organised “Live From the Continent,” an event at the Lincoln Center at which African artists such as South Africa’s Spoek Mathambo performed. She is producing a music showcase of 12 African music acts this spring at SXSW.

“In the 90s, they always said there was a brain drain in Africa. People got their education, and then left the country. Now, people believe they can be successful in their own countries,” she argues. “It’s indicative of the opportunities now available on the continent, and the direction the country is moving in. People have their own vision. There’s been a changing of the guard. Artists are making music, but are conscious of what their role is, wanting Africa to be different than the Africa they have known.”

The full story is at the ECONOMIST

Photo: Nick Klaus

The do-it-yourself tradition of punk-rock fliers are just part of his new book, “Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation”, published by the University of Mississippi Press. The book covers punk’s cultural crossover into graffiti and skateboarding, and includes insight into queer, female and Hispanic punk scenes.

To promote the book, Mr Ensminger organised a travelling exhibition of punk-rock gig posters and fliers. The wall-sized collage, assembled recently at Rough Trade East in London, embodies a mostly American, anti-authoritarian sensibility from the 1980s. (The fliers include calls to “Rock Against Reagan” and vote for
“[Jello] Biafra For Mayor”.)

Mr Ensminger plays with The Biscuit Bombs and No Love Less, and founded the punk zine Left Of The Dial. He teaches folklore, composition, and humanities at Lee College in Baytown, Texas, and he runs websites that archive the history of female punks and black punks, and punk scenes in Florida, Texas, California, New York City and America’s midwest.

What makes a book about ‘80s punk rock timely and relevant in 2011?

As the world leans more heavily towards digitised forms and virtual representations, the book highlights handmade, do-it-yourself, vernacular and deeply democratic works on paper. As the old economy of paper products and industry gives way to the information economy and social-media platforms, fliers posted on light poles seem so “last century”. Google has digitised innumerable books; I have digitised well over 1,500 gig fliers.

What makes concert fliers from punk shows so significant?

Fliers were microcosms that speak indelibly about the economics of the underground. From cut-n-paste guerrilla style to utilitarian blandness, [they capture the] psycho-geography of scenes, the location of the clubs, and the fuzzy ideologies of the community in handwritten rants and graphic fare.

Why do you collect them?

Documenting the fliers means preserving the works on paper of myriad anonymous artists meant to be short-lived. It also means using the fliers to document the participation of women, people of colour, and gays and lesbians in the multicultural punk sphere. I curate a whole blog dedicated to the work of Randy “Biscuit” Turner, a rare “out” gay punk-funk pioneer who made well over 100 gig fliers for his band the Big Boys without utilising typewriters or computers. He relied entirely on inky illustration, cut and paste, collage, mixed media and the rigors of copy machines. Black people didn’t immerse in punk? Think again. I have over 250 fliers of bands playing gigs with black members, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

What does the newer Muslim punk scene have in common with the ‘80s punk discussed in your book? What’s different?

Muslim punks prove that punk is a convergence culture shaped by pluralism, not middle-class Anglo aspirations. They really test punk’s true dictum—to extend freedom—and push people to recognise punk as a vehicle of power that recognises no border.

You write that skateboarding in the 80s was “genuinely empowering.” Is it still?

Skateboarding is still quite restricted in many areas, a kind of fugitive act, especially as cities become much more monitored and space becomes much more contested. Skateboarders still seize pedestrian, industrial, recreational and municipal spaces to re-imagine use and topography, sport and theatrics.

Did your work collecting punk literature and art lead you to your current academic career?

Five years ago I returned as a student at the University of Oregon, under the helm of the folklore programme, where I sought a second masters degree under the guidance of Daniel Wojcik, a well-admired folklorist and former punk himself. In the 1990s he penned a book on punk’s transgressive qualities, including tattooing and piercing. During the programme I realised I had been pursuing folklore my whole life, documenting vernacular art and street art for years.

How do you explain flier culture to people unfamiliar with it?

Fliers were an essential part of the process of stirring culture from below. Fliering was not just a solo process, some lone kid stuck in the basement, using Adobe Illustrator or other programs. It was dirty and dishevelled, hands-on, faulty and frail. Plus it created a sense of lore—from The Clash wheat-pasting London in times of strife to people being chased for vandalism here in the [American] South. Plenty of discontent flows through digital avenues as well, but will it resonate like the furore and discord the Sex Pistols unleashed? Jamie Reid, who designed the album art for “Never Mind the Bollocks”, is now just another artist appropriated and remixed, and he himself borrowed plenty from earlier art movements, but that shock value is difficult to repeat.

“Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation” by David Ensminger is published by the University of Mississippi Press and is out now.

The full interview is at THE ECONOMIST and also at INTELLIGENT LIFE

It’s fitting, then, that the annual Bicycle Film Festival makes its return to London, Oct. 5 to 9, in various locations around the city (screenings primarily take place at the Barbican Center).

The festival, which was founded in 2001 by Brendt Barbur, after he was hit by a bus while cycling in New York City, aims to celebrate different facets of cycling culture through film, music and art. The festival now travels to more than two dozen cities internationally.

On Oct. 9, the festival will highlight cycling films made by women, about women. “Cycling, filmmaking and art are all dominated by men,” Mr. Barbur said. “This year we have a lot more content produced and directed by women, about women. I recognized that women are gaining a voice in cycling, and we are elated to be able to provide a platform for this.”

The festival will feature a short film by the acclaimed American director Spike Jonze called “Mark on Allen,” featuring the skateboarder Mark Gonzalez. In collaboration with the Barbican’s Silent Film Club, the festival will include a screening of “Wheels of Chance,” a British film from 1922, set to a live piano score.

Those looking for a bit more action should check out the roller racing event on Oct. 6, the bike messenger race on Oct. 8, and the bike polo tournament on Oct. 9.

“The main shift in cycling at this point is that it is becoming more mainstream around the world,” Mr. Barbur said. “It is one of the most positive moments of the past decades, and can only grow from here.”

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo: The film “Bikelordz,” by Mikey Hart, part of the Bicycle Film Festival in London, follows young BMX bikers in Accra, Ghana. Image courtesy of the Bicycle Film Festival

In an effort to explore how this and other examples of postmodernism across the artistic spectrum — architecture, fashion, dance, pop music — have shaped 20th-century design and style, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (Cromwell Road; 44-20-7942-2000; www.vam.ac.uk) will host “Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990,” running from Sept. 24 to Jan. 15.

“Memphis’s entry into the world befitted that of a rock star, rather than a furniture brand,” said Jane Pavitt, a curator of the exhibit. “Thirty years is about right to start looking back with fresh eyes at a subject which has been variously derided, dismissed and treated as highly toxic.”

As MTV also turns 30 this year, the show will include elements of video and music, including performances from David Byrne, Grace Jones, Devo, Laurie Anderson, Neneh Cherry, New Order, Kraftwerk and Grandmaster Flash — artists who employed the key postmodern strategy of sampling and editing together different style tropes, Ms. Pavitt said.

Also included in the show are works by artists like Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol, and architects like Philip Johnson. But the show goes beyond art, including pieces from luxury brands like Alessi, the fashion designers Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Sprouse, album and magazine covers, and films like Ridley Scott’s science-fiction classic “Bladerunner.”

Postmodernism, according to Ms. Pavitt, includes “a set of incendiary tactics which overturned the principles and dogmas of the modern movement, and advocated instead a politics of and about style itself, ransacking the dressing up box of stylistic idioms to produce an eclectic, exuberant and often confrontational practice.”

This exhibition is the culmination of a series of exhibitions at the V&A exploring 20th century design and style. In 2006, the museum staged an exhibition on Modernism. Their 2008 show “Cold War Modern” examined the post-war impact of modernism on both sides of the iron curtain.

The full story is at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Photo: V&A Images

Sunday is considered the family-oriented day, and so the big, sometimes chaotic parade from Great Western Road to Ladbroke Grove happens on Monday. A smaller parade also takes place on Sunday.

Performers dress up in elaborate costumes, and vendors sell a wide variety of Caribbean food staples, including jerk chicken, curries, fried plantains, and rice and peas.

The carnival includes more than 40 sound systems spinning various styles of dub, reggae, R&B, house and funk. Earplugs can come in handy, particularly if you wind up standing near the large speakers. Due to the noise (and crowds), borough officials say the event may not be suitable for small children.

Indeed, the carnival has had a checkered past. The BBC reported that an average of 250 crimes are reported each year, despite the 5,000 or so police officers that are on duty each day of the carnival. Lines at the portable toilets are daunting, as is the amount of trash that can accumulate on the streets.

Because of recent riots and looting throughout London and Great Britain, carnival organizers, local authorities and the Metropolitan Police say they are discussing measures that will be put in place to ensure added safety.

“Given the huge number of people who take part in Carnival, crime rates are low,” said Bob Broadhurst, the Metropolitan Police officer responsible for leading the carnival policing operation, in a press release, “and our policing style in recent years has ensured that less people become victims of crime. We know that everyone who loves Carnival wants that success to continue this year.”

Given the enormity of the carnival, it can be difficult to get up-to-date information, but the best sources are the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, the official event Web site, or this unofficial event Web site.

Several tube stations provide access to the carnival area, including Westbourne Park, Latimer Road, Notting Hill Gate, Royal Oak, Bayswater, and Queensway, however certain time restrictions will apply on both days. Driving a car is ill-advised, as many streets are closed for pedestrian-use only. Transportation for London provides regular transportation updates.

The full story is also at the NEW YORK TIMES.

Galactic has a unique sound built from eclectic influences—jazz, rap, electronica, jam-band music and bounce (a local take on hip hop)—honed over years of performing live. They have shared the stage with B.B. King and The Roots, among others, and they have recorded with a variety of other artists. “From the Corner to the Block” (2007) featured a slew of rappers and MCs including Boots Riley of The Coup and Gift of Gab from Blackalicious.

But the band remains devoted to the New Orleans music scene and often collaborates with local talent. “Ya-Ka-May” (2010), the last album, was a love letter to the city (named after a traditional New Orleans soup). “The Other Side of Midnight” is a fine follow-up, but still no match for seeing these guys in person.

Now on a world tour, the band’s guitarist, Jeff Raines, answered a few questions from the road via e-mail about the new album, the music of New Orleans and learning from other musicians.

Why did you decide to make a live album from New Orleans?

We recorded our new album for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost is that we live here and wanted to record in the most comfortable environment possible. We also wanted to have options in terms of inviting our musician friends from around town to come play. Our own studio is close by. We did our first live album at Tips exactly ten years ago so we felt like it made sense on that level as well.

From a musical or cultural standpoint, what’s changed in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina?

From a musical standpoint I don’t think all that much has changed since the storm. Certainly in the first few years there were less people playing music and going out to the clubs. These days the club scene seems pretty vibrant. There are new brass bands popping up and the bounce rap scene has been getting some national attention.

How does your new album reflect New Orleans music and culture as it is today?

I think this record reflects what Galactic has been doing recently. We have been touring with a fantastic trombone player so we are bringing a more full-bodied horn section feel. Having Cyril Neville on the show singing at that venue also strikes me as being something special to New Orleans.

How have collaborations changed your sound or approach to songwriting?

When we go into our demo-writing process the material that might lend itself to having some kind of vocal element becomes obvious. We sometimes will send the artist we are working with a few ideas and go from there.

What sets funk apart from other music genres? What makes funk “funk”?

I guess funk represents a certain feel in music that usually makes you want to get up.

What is Galactic’s version of funk? How is your music unique?

We’ve been able to develop a sound over many albums and years of touring. I think a lot of that comes about through a shared history of playing shows together.

You’ve sometimes been called a “jazz jam” band. Do you embrace that or shrug it off?

We don’t pay much attention to names the media invent to try and classify what we are doing.

What’s the most recognisable way New Orleans has shaped the sound of your band?

Through the songs we’ve learned and then done our own versions of. We’ve always covered songs by local brass bands or our local musical heroes. I think learning all this music has affected us as a band.

Galactic is currently on tour. The band is at work on their next studio album, to be released next spring.

The full interview is also at INTELLIGENT LIFE.